Your house’s Hollywood star turn

Film crew at the door may mean cash infusion, family intrusion

By

CecilieRohwedder

Warner Brothers Entertainment

‘Argo’ cast members run lines in Ambat family den in Hancock Park section of Los Angeles.

For Grace Verzosa Ambat, Hollywood came knocking. More specifically, Hollywood location scouts Chris Baugh and Lori Balton who had spent weeks combing Los Angeles neighborhoods for a house that evoked 1970s Tehran left a letter at her door with a phone number. Ambat’s son returned the call, and soon after, a crew of about 100 descended to film at her family’s house day and night. The actors slept there for a week. The street was lined with 25 trucks and trailers.

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Ambat, who temporarily moved to another home she owns nearby, regularly returned to watch filming, and enjoyed the daily buffets from the catering truck. She made more than $50,000, which helped pay for her son’s education at a music institute. She got to meet Ben Affleck. And her home now has unusual bragging rights: It plays a prominent role in “Argo,” the drama nominated for seven Oscars at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony.

“I never thought about anything like this, but it was a big fortune,” said Ambat, who is 57 and works in business development for nursing homes. In the movie, her house is the Canadian ambassador’s residence where six Americans hide and with the help of an intelligence officer played by Affleck prepare to be smuggled out of Iran disguised as a film crew. “Argo” was filmed in Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and Istanbul.

Soon after the Ambats and their neighbors agreed to the shoot, Baugh, the location manager, came for an inspection. The house has two iron gates, stone floors and barred windows, which give it a foreign feel. The layout and width of the ground floor were an added advantage because they would allow for easy camera movement. On his next visit, Baugh brought four colleagues, including the production designer. On his third, he brought Affleck. Once filming began, the only disruption was a fundraiser for President Barack Obama that took place across the street from the movie set. In all, the film crew spent a month in Ambat’s home in the historic Hancock Park neighborhood of L.A. See related slide show at WSJ.com.

A growing number of homeowners are hearing from Hollywood these days. As distribution channels multiply to include ever more television channels and online video, filmmakers need more locations private homes above all. While filming also happens at schools, court houses, bridges or intersections, almost every character in any film or television show needs a home. So filmmakers need more homes than they do other buildings.

Last year, there were more than 46,000 days of filming with official permits in the Los Angeles area alone, according to FilmL.A., an organization that handles permits for the city. Around a third of the shoots took place at private residences, estimates Vice President Philip Sokoloski. After a drop in 2008, the number of permits issued is rising again and grew by 1.7% in 2012 from the year before.

Especially during the downturn, many homeowners welcomed additional income from their properties and accepted lower fees, said James Perry, a location producer and author of the book “Opening Your Door to Hollywood: How to Get Rich by Turning Your Property Into a Movie Set.” Owners do not have to pay federal taxes on this income if the house is their personal residence and they rent it out for filming less than two weeks a year. In most parts of the country, including California, homeowners don’t pay state taxes either.

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